Ambassador Peter Semneby presented to the OSCE Permanent Council an overview of his last three years as the Head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia as well as priority issues for the future. The presentation highlighted the significant positive developments that have been made in many important areas since his arrival in Croatia three years ago.

"Croatia has made remarkable and well-deserved progress from the devastation of war less than 10 years ago to the threshold of EU negotiations," said Ambassador Semneby. "This gives a positive incentive to other south Eastern European countries to continue to implement difficult reforms".

He observed, however, that almost a decade after the end of the 1991/95 conflict, war-related issues continued to surface on the political scene. "At the same time," said Ambassador Semneby, "there are some important areas where progress has not met expectations, and where Croatia still needs to make efforts to live up to standards set by the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the European Union".